Leggy Pterostylis Nutans

[Rico13]

Hello all , My Pterostylis Nutans has come out of its summer dormancy, but the plant dosen't look normal. Instead of growing all the leaves in a rosette on the soil, they are all separated by a length of stem. I am giving it bright light, so I don't think the problem is light. Is this normal, or is there something wrong ? Help is always appreciated.

-rico

[Andrew]

I presume you're growing this inside/under lights?Your plant looks typical for a plant that has been grown in too much shade. How much light are you calling "bright light"? What else are you growing, and more importantly flowering well, in the type of light you're giving it?

[Rico13]

I don't have lights, I grow it on a south facing window. It gets about 5 hours of sunlight per day in the winter.

[TOMMYMIAMI]

Can't help but must say very unique and interesting orchid!

[Andrew]

I grow my Pterostylis outside, under 50% shade in south-eastern Australia. I've never bothered to measure the light intensity in my shadehouse so it's a bit hard to equate the amount of light my orchids get to what you'd get on a windowsill in Minnesota. Generally my plants get about Cattleya-Dendrobium light. In good light, the leaves should stay fairly flat against the surface of the mix. I don't usually take photos of leaves but these Ptst concinna pretty much show you what my plants look like under this level of light.




I had this nutans in my Sarcochilus house (Paph light) when I was playing around with conditions one year. As you can see it doesn't take much of a drop in light for the leaves to start becoming etiolated. It's now back growing amongst my other terrestrials and the rosettes are flat like the concinna above.